Service provision in a telecommunications network

ABSTRACT

A telecommunications network of the kind including service control points which permit differing services to be provided to customers centralized storage of date defining service provided to each customer is avoided. Whenever an update of service provided to a particular customer is required, such update is carried out centrally at a service creation point. In the service creation point, data defining the current executable code deployed at the service control point for that customer is recovered to enable recreation of the existing executable code to be carried out. The current code may then be modified regardless of which service creation point is carrying out the modification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to telecommunications networks and inparticular to the control of data relating thereto.

2. Related Art

Modern communications networks provide great flexibility to customers.For example, telephone customers have the ability to control thediversion of telephone calls from their own telephone number to anyother telephone number on the network.

Similarly, network operators provide flexible services to businesscustomers. Such services as "0800" or "freefone" enable customers todial a call without being charged (a form of automatic reverse chargecalling). The caller is connected by the network to a telephone, thenetwork number of which is derived from the 0800 number.

One procedure for these kinds of service has been to establish a callacross the physical network from the calling customer to a networkservice point (eg to the main switching unit nearest the called customerin the case of call diversion) and then to establish a call across thephysical network from the network service point to the diverted networknumber.

Such procedures waste network resources particularly if two longdistance call connections are required to effect a "local" call. This isparticularly so if, for example, calls to service numbers are connectedin dependence upon the calling customer location.

As network switching speeds improve and the apparent near-instantaneousconnection between any two network numbers becomes possible, it is morecommon for the switching unit to which the calling customer is connectedto apply to another point in the network for an actual network numberbefore effecting a call connection. Thus, in the case of call diversion,data-interchange between the originating switching unit and thedestination switching unit causes the diversion information to bereturned to the originating unit which then establishes a call to thedesignated network number.

This function becomes more important where number portability orso-called personal numbering is required. Since there is no relationshipbetween any physical connection point in the network and the callednumber, practically every call requires a translation in the same way as0800 and similar services currently require.

With translated number services, a service control point provides thedestination network number to the originating switching unit. Theprovided number may be dependent on day of week, time of day or otherfactors at the called customers discretion. The data held in the servicecontrol point is usually under the control of the network operator whoeffects changes at the request of the customer. However, it may bedesirable to allow the customer to effect changes to some of this data.

Similarly, with personal numbering a service control point holds data inrespect of one or more nominal physical network codes or numbers.Customers may have the ability to set up time of day/day of weektranslations and to modify such data from time to time. Alternatively oradditionally, the "intelligence" associated with the switching unit maybe responsive to customer location data. Finally, the network operatormay be required to modify customer related data to restrict or allowcertain services to or from specific customers.

As the service provided to and/or selected by the customer now dependsupon data held in respect of that customer, as may variations in chargesfor customer service, it is essential that any data modification carriedout by the network operator does not result in unwanted changes to datastored by other authorized persons.

Maintaining a full record of every customer's currently absolute statusat each potential service amendment point becomes impractical as thenumber of such points in the network and the level of flexibility in thenetwork increase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is provided atelecommunications network including a plurality of switching units eachcontrolled by an intelligent control system, at least one servicecontrol point adapted to provide a translation from data defining afirst telephone number to data defining a second telephone number, andone or more service creation points each capable of acting on data inthe service control point(s) to modify translations, wherein prior toeffecting any modification of data relating to a specified firsttelephone number the or each service creation point is arranged torecover existing data from the respective service control centre topermit an exact replica of the current service provided to the definednumber to be constructed.

According to a feature of the invention there is provided a method ofselectively activating services to customers of a communications networkincluding storing at a service control point respective executable codedefining services to be provided for each customer, providing for eachcustomer respective customer-modifiable data to permit the respectivecustomer to determine how defined services are used, and amending theservices provided to a respective customer by copying data defining therespective executable code to a remote service creation point,recreating the respective executable code at the service creation point,amending the executable code at the service creation point and deployingthe amended code at the service control point.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A telecommunications network in accordance with the invention using themethod of the invention will now be described by way of example onlywith reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of an intelligent telecommunicationsnetwork in which the invention may be used; and

FIGS. 2 and 3 show schematically data and code transfers within thenetwork of FIG. 1 in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIG. 1, the public switched telephone network (PSTN)is represented by two switches 1 and 2 each with its associatedintelligent network control 3 and 4.

Each switch serves a number of customer lines 5 each of which has aspecific network number which may not necessarily correspond to acustomer's telephone number.

Within the network, normally at specific main switching centres, anumber of service control points 6 are provided only one of which isshown for simplicity.

The service control points 6 for a particular service code, for example0800 or 0345, hold translation data in respect of that code. Similarlyfor specific customers identified by their called numbers, translationdata may be held.

Consider a call originating from a customer line 5 on the switch 1. Ifthe customer signals the code 0800 followed by a number defining theservice required, the network control 3 will recognise this as a numberrequiring translation and will forward a query message by way of anetwork data channel to one of the respective service control points 6for "0800". The service control point 6 will return a call controlmessage by way of the data channel to the network control 3 to identifythe network number of another customer line 5 to which the call is to becompleted. This allows the network control 3 to complete the call acrossthe network in known manner.

As described above the service control point 6 appears to be a simpledata map. In practice, in combination with service management layers 7of the network, the function is more complex. Thus the call originatedabove may be connected to a first network number whereas had the calloriginated from a customer elsewhere, for example on the switch 2, analternative network number could have been selected. Further, if thereceiving customer wishes, the selection may be time of day dependent.Thus calls received at night may be directed to a cental location whiledaytime calls are directed to a local franchisee. Additional specifiablechanges may include (but not be limited to) weekend connection todifferent areas, automatic diversion when one server is busy orrotational selection of call recipients.

The network operator will program the service control points 6 and willupdate the program in respect of particular numbers as and when enhancedor reduced service is to be provided. Changing the service availablerequires the service management systems 7 to "know" what services arecurrently available. Now with relatively limited numbers of customersusing specialised services it is possible to maintain a record in themanagement system of the complete build for each individual customer.

However, as network flexibility increases and services to customers suchas personal numbering or number portability increase, the relationshipbetween the called number and the network destination becomes moretenuous. Thus, almost every number dialled requires translation and thenumber of service selection possibilities grows to almost one percustomer. The network operator continues to provide overallaccessability to services for each customer, for example providing forcall diversion to other numbers, responding to customer location data(such as personal numbering cards and telephone instruments), orselectable time of day/day of week diversions or destinations.

As some data is customer dependent, for example the number to divert to,time and day data, mobile numbers and the like, maintaining or modifyingcustomer service records at the service management level 7 could resultin inconsistency of the customer's data particularly if customer datachanges during service management activity.

Accordingly, referring also to FIG. 3, within the service control point6 the customer defined service is separated from service provision. Thusthe network operator defines service available to a particular customerby provision of executable program 9 which refers out to customer data8, or on customer action, modifies customer data 8 if such modificationis permitted.

When the network operator is required to define service for individualcustomers or to amend previously defined service, only the executableprogram 9 of the information at the service control point 6 needs to bealtered. Currently the service defined by the service management layer 7would require to be amended and that layer would hold details of theservices provided to a particular customer. To effect such changes aservice creation function 10 is provided.

Referring additionally to FIG. 2, in the service creation environment 10the operator selects a number of service building blocks represented byBB1, BB2 and BB3, each of which provides a particular service function.Selected blocks are combined with program modules from a library andcompiled (11) to provide the executable code 9 for use by the servicecontrol point 6. The generated data is deployed by way of the servicemanagement layer 7 into the appropriate service control point 6.

As will be appreciated, modification of the executable code 9 requiresthe service creation environment 10 to know not only what facilities areto be added or cancelled from the customer services but also whatservices are to remain. Further, modification of service also requiresknowledge of the building block (BB1-BB3) versions previously used.

To store all of this data at each service creation environment likely toeffect service modification for a particular customer is expensive interms of data storage and maintaining diverse records in an up-to-datestate.

Accordingly, with the present invention, whenever a service amendment isrequired the service creation environment 10 recovers the existingexecutable code directly from the service control point 6. Within theexecutable code 9 is stored dummy instruction information whichidentifies the build level of the code including the date and libraryidentification information of the building blocks previously used.

Having recovered this information the service creation environment 10reconstitutes the exact service provided to the customer using only thelinked library and module information from the previous (actual) databuild. This information may then be used in the creation of a new databuild or for examination of the customer service provided.

Thus regardless of the location of the service creation environment,even a remote environment 12 can effect service modification withoutinadvertently modifying an old version for the particular service.

While as hereinbefore described, the service control points 6 andservice creation environments 10, 12 have been described with referenceto voice services, it should be realised that the invention is not solimited. Thus as intelligent telecommunications sytsems provide morediverse services, the service creation environment may need to createservice combinations involving not only voice and data communicationsbut also services such as telemetry access for third parties, homeremote control and monitoring for example.

Growing capability of the PSTN to carry multimedia services, providingthe customer with access to hundreds of potential service combinationsrequires careful handling of service amendments. This inventioncontributes to the security of customer services.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telecommunications network including:aplurality of switching units, each controlled by an intelligent controlsystem, at least one service control point adapted to provide atranslation from data defining a first telephone number to data defininga second telephone number, and one or more service creation points, eachcapable of acting on data in the service control point(s) to modifytranslations, wherein, each service creation point includes meansarranged to recover existing service defining data from the respectiveservice control point to permit an exact replica of the current serviceprovided to the particular customer to be constructed prior to effectingmodification of service relating to a specified customer number.
 2. Atelecommunications network as in claim 1, wherein:the service definingdata is embedded as dummy instruction information within executablecode.
 3. A method as in claim 2, wherein;the data defining therespective executable code is encoded as dummy instructions within theexecutable code.
 4. A method of selectively activating services tocustomers of a communications network, said method includingstoring at aservice control point respective executable code defining services to beprovided for each customer, providing for each customer respectivecustomer-modifiable data to permit the respective customer to determinehow defined services are used, and amending the services provided to arespective customer by:copying data defining the respective executablecode to a remote service creation point, recreating the respectiveexecutable code at the service creation point, amending the executablecode at the service creation point, and deploying the amended code atthe service control point.